Friday, March 7, 2008

Last Week's Poll Results:

Who will be the next president of the United States of America?


Scroll to the bottom of the page to see this week's poll....
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The CCC, Proud Member of the Corps Network


The California Conservation Corps is a member of The Corps Network, an umbrella organization serving as a voice for more than 100 conservation and service corps programs throughout the country. There are currently programs in 41 states and the District of Columbia.

CCC Director David Muraki is a member of the Corps Network board, and he and several CCC staff members participated in the organization’s February Forum in Washington, D.C. Various corps programs shared experiences, accomplishments and best practices, heard from corpsmembers, and also had the opportunity to visit congressional representatives during the conference.

You can check out the Corps Network at www.corpsnetwork.org

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Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Camera Magnet

Last Tuesday Governor Schwarzenegger signed an executive order to establish the first-in-the-nation cabinet position for service and volunteering. (see story links below) On hand to lend support and celebrate with the Governor, First Lady and new Cabinet Secretary Karen Baker, were over 60 corpsmembers representing the Pomona, Norwalk, LA and Camarillo centers, and represent they did.

C-1 Christian Herrera and 5 corpsmembers had the honor of standing on stage along with approximately 75 other representatives of service and volunteer agencies.

Christian Hererra (in the yellow hat below) is no stranger to attracting media attention for the corps—he’s appeared in many television and print stories on behalf of the CCC and was a total “camera magnet” at last week’s event. On second thought, maybe Christian just “happened to be in the right place at the right time……” Nice job Chris. Stories: Time Magazine, NY Times, LA Times, Vallejo Times Read more!

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Monday, March 3, 2008

Join the Corps, See Siberia

Tahoe corpsmember Savannah Kestral has been selected as a CCC participant in the annual Tahoe-Baikal Summer Environmental Exchange. It should be an experience she’ll never forget.

The exchange takes five North American and six Northern European young people, along with two corpsmembers, for a summer of education, conservation awareness and hands-on watershed research at Lake Tahoe and Yosemite in California and Lake Baikal in Siberia, Russia. The group will also have a chance to tour Mongolia and other parts of Siberia.
Lake Tahoe is one of the world’s largest, clearest and deepest alpine lakes, with more than 260 wildlife species and 1,000 plant species in the Lake Tahoe Basin. Lake Baikal is the world’s largest (in volume), deepest and oldest freshwater lake. It contains 20 percent of the Earth’s unfrozen fresh water and is one of most biologically diverse lakes in the world.

Savannah is a veteran of international exchanges, having been a part of the CCC’s work exchange with Conservation Volunteers Australia in 2007. As part of her Tahoe-Baikal internship, she will help with the organization’s Web site, local outreach efforts to support the program, and the development of community service programs in conservation awareness. The Tahoe-Baikal exchange will be based at Fallen Leaf Lake while in the Tahoe Basin.

The CCC Foundation will provide half of the $2500 participation costs for the two corpsmembers. This is the 14th year members of the CCC have participated in the Tahoe-Baikal partnership.
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Overview of the CCC

Employment of Corpsmembers
The CCC hires young men and women between 18 and 25 for a year of natural resource work and emergency response. Corpsmembers earn minimum wage and work throughout the state in urban, suburban and rural areas.

CCC -- Emergency Response Work
For more than 30 years, the CCC has responded to floods, fires, mudslides, earthquakes, oil spills and agricultural pest infestations throughout California. Since 1976, more than nine million hours of emergency response work has been provided.

In 2008, the CCC devoted 141 days straight to fire response, from June to October, calling out the most fire crews in the department’s history.

The CCC can dispatch trained crews of 10-15 corpsmembers within hours, anywhere in the state. Transportation, supervision, tools and safety gear are supplied. Corpsmembers are trained in incident command systems, fire camp support, first aid, CPR, and tool use. They are covered by worker’s compensation and undergo a Department of Justice fingerprint background check.

CCC Partnerships with Other Agencies
Throughout the year, the CCC provides natural resource work for many state, federal and local agencies through work contracts.

The CCC’s largest state work sponsor is Caltrans. Caltrans pays the CCC personnel $18/hour; the agency calculates it would cost $32-36/hour for other labor sources if the CCC were not available.

As a cost-cutting measure, it has been proposed that CAL FIRE could save money by hiring Emergency Workers at $8-10/hour for its fire camp personnel, rather than use CCC corpsmembers. But, while the CCC can be dispatched immediately to fires, CAL FIRE would need to recruit and hire Emergency Workers after the incident is underway. In addition, their wages do not fund hiring, training, workers’ compensation, supervision, tools and safety equipment or transportation.

Apart from the conservation benefits of CCC projects undertaken for government agencies, there are lasting values in the job skills the corpsmembers receive. These skills enable them to successfully join the California workforce after their year in the CCC.

Meeting the CCC Mission
The Public Resources Code describes the California Conservation Corps’ mission as “instilling basic skills and a healthy work ethic in California youth, building their character, self-esteem, and self-discipline, and establishing within them a strong sense of civic responsibility and understanding of a value of day’s work for a day’s wages.” The CCC is also charged with enhancing the educational opportunities and employability of corpsmembers.

With major budget reductions in recent years making it more difficult to meet its mission, the CCC has not waivered from this focus, while realizing increased efforts are needed. High school courses have been provided by two charter high schools (John Muir and Eagles Peak), and since FY 2003-04, the GED/High School graduation rate has increased. IN FY 2007-08, 25 percent more corpsmembers completed their GEDs/HS diplomas than in the previous fiscal year. The CCC has continued to pursue an after-paid-hours education and training program for its corpsmembers. This has included academic courses, career development training, environmental education, community volunteer hours, leadership training and life-skills development.

Teddy's Quote of the day